Markeshia Ricks Photo
John Cavaliere doesn’t want Lyric Hall to be added to a growing list of places in New Haven that used to be — but a five-figure back-taxes bill threatens to lower the curtain on the Westville cultural gathering place.
Cavaliere (pictured) owes the city nearly $14,000, and all the potential he sees in the more than 100-year-old, one-time Vaudeville theater — and the weekly boost it gives to the neighborhood’s civic life — is being threatened by the debt.
He has been lovingly and painstakingly restoring Lyric Hall since he bought it in 2006, operating a restoration business in the front while hosting a wide range of theatrical and musical performances on the stage in back (including the Betty Soo concert from which the video is taken). In the last four years he has dealt with expensive structural problems including a flooded basement that is just recently returning to functioning status.
The biggest challenge involves digging out of the $13,902.52 he owes the city in taxes and interest. He anticipates the bill will only grow again this year.
“If we can’t resolve it, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “I find it hard to sleep at night. If I can’t sleep, how can I be creative?”
Despite playing host to many arts and music events over the years, the venue just isn’t making the kind of money it needs to to keep the lights on and cover the taxes, especially after a property revaluation led to a doubling of Cavaliere’s taxes. He worked out a payment plan, then fell behind. He said the city tax department is starting to use a word that scares him: foreclosure.
With the support of a slew of Westville neighbors and Alder Richard Furlow, Cavaliere received a tavern license from the Board of Zoning Appeals in December to serve wine and beer during events. (Read about that here.) He had hoped obtaining the license would increase his revenue. But with another tax bill on the way, he’s running out of options.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Cavaliere and Furlow at the December BZA meeting.
His last hope may lie in pursuing a not-for-profit revenue stream. A New-York based not-for-profit technology organization, Fractured Atlas, has been speaking with Cavaliere about serving as a fiscal sponsor so Lyric Hall can solicit grant money and tax-deductible donations, potentially alleviating some of the burden of being a profitable venture.
Being a Fractured Atlas member would also provide Cavaliere with additional tools to promote and sell tickets for events. Cavaliere has been accepted as a member, and now he’s hoping that the city tax collector will see fit to cut him a break on the taxes.
Furlow said there is still a lot of work ahead for Cavaliere in terms of switching from a limited liability corporation, which Lyric Hall is now, to becoming a not-for profit company of its own down the line. Cavaliere will have to set up an advisory board and establish bylaws.
New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon called Lyric Hall “really, really important psychologically” to Westville. She said she hopes the city and others in the community will continue to work with Cavaliere to keep the venue going. She said she’s certainly willing to help.
“It seems that when we’re trying to bring in a big player, that we can find tax breaks and incentives,” she said. “But when it’s somebody small like this who is trying to restore something that is important to the neighborhood, it’s like they get punished.”
With Delaney’s Restaurant & Tap Room gone, Dillon believes it would be a blow to the neighborhood to lose Lyric Hall too.
“It is one of the anchors to the neighborhood,” she said. “It has a unique visual location and it has a very loyal following. I know that the city has other Main Street [neighborhood commercial revitalization] issues, but there has to be some help for these folks who for the last 15 years have been putting this neighborhood together stitch by stitch.”
Standing in the front of the hall Monday, with exposed wooden beams overhead, Cavaliere said he still has a lot of vision for Lyric Hall as a performing arts venue, but also as a place where the public can gather and people can come and learn to make art. He’d like the front of the hall to house a second performing space. He’d like to double the capacity of the theater, which currently can hold about 50 people.
“I want kids in here and the vitality of young people,” he said. “I don’t want to be history. I want to make history.”
John Cavaliere has done amazing work turning Lyric Hall into the community treasure that it is. The many and varied events John hosts bring such life and vitality to the neighborhood and help to make Westville Village a destination for arts, culture and entertainment. I hope his recent steps help to establish a more solid financial footing going forward.